When all is said and done, I logged 202.95 miles training for this race. Hal Higdon’s novice plan calls for 191.3 miles (if I added correctly, which is entirely unlikely), so I exceeded that by over 10 miles, despite two very light weeks due to injury.

Once I hit about 20 miles per week, I bailed on cross training and strength training. I’m not exactly proud that I failed this aspect of things, but I don’t claim to be perfect or superhuman. I am at work 9 hours a day, plus a 30ish minute commute each way, and doing lots of traveling and wedding planning, and sometimes four days a week is the best I can do. I am okay with that. My primary goal was to finish my half marathon, and I think I’m going to.

I have maintained my weight, which I’m also proud of. I’ve heard that some people gain weight while training, but I followed my hunger cues pretty well. Example: I noticed last week I was less hungry since I wasn’t running, so I cut out my morning snack and reduced the size of my lunch. I was starving and ate all the time during harder training weeks, and that’s okay too! I think that training really improved my ability to be an intuitive eater, which was totally unexpected.

My body has changed. I think I have lost a bit of muscle in my upper body, which makes me sad, but it’s my own damn fault for skipping out on weight training. BUT, the upside is that my ass is bangin’. Seriously! It is perky and round and tight. Who knew running was so nice to the booty? My thighs have also slimmed down a bit, which is a big deal because they are usually my “trouble zone,” so to speak. All in all, I am happy with the physical changes in my body.

Mentally, towards the end I got a little burned out. My horrible 10.4 miler that ended in dry heaves made me feel so broken and like I was wasting my time. I started missing my house and Tim and the animals. BUT, thankfully, when I hit that point, it was just about time to taper anyway. I also really liked that the first few weeks were basically confidence-booster weeks for me—the mileage was low and I was able to prove to myself that I could stick with this program.

Am I prepared? Well, I hope so. You’ll find out on Saturday one way or the other. But, I would give this program two thumbs up so far. I think that if I was slightly less busy on other fronts and didn’t have to bail on some of the cross-training and strength training elements, I would have been even happier right now.

12 Responses

GOOD LUCK!! I am so excited for you, and I can’t wait to read about how the 1/2 goes. I am thinking about doing the Hal program to train… it is pretty overwhelming though. You are definitely an inspiration!! :-)

I wish you the best Saturday. It’s understandable that you couldn’t do it all (weight training) with your job, planning a wedding, and then training. I hope that you stick with running after the 1/2 marathon. It’s a lifestyle sport!

About Me

Hi, I'm Brie, a 25 year old bride-to-be living in Kansas City, Missouri with my fiance, two cats, and dog. In June 2008, I weighed in at 200 pounds and was incredibly out of shape. Since then, I've lost 50 pounds through sensible diet and exercise, and mostly kept it off (with the exception of some new muscles and a tiny bit of bar-exam-related fat). I'm on a mission to plan a fabulous wedding, and walk down the aisle on May 8, 2010 healthy, fit, and beautiful!